Since its inception in 2002, Roomba machines have held an iron grip around the throat of the robot vacuum market to the point that “robot vacuums” is an awkward phrase and “Roomba” is accepted vernacular.
Dramatics aside, iRobot, Roomba’s parent company, has continued to upgrade the coin-shaped cleaners incrementally since the initial, but the newest models, unveiled today, harbor the most advanced tech yet.
The Roomba i7+ has all the suction of the highest level of previous Roombas (those previous models all listed here), but adds in two new bits of usefulness — enhanced memory and its own dust removal system. The former means that this Roomba will be the first to clean a room (or rooms) and remember it which, according to iRobot, means it will get more and more efficient with every clean until its fully optimized a space-cleaning pattern. This will save both time and the robo-vac’s precious battery. On top of this, it will be able to map entire floors and the bot’s owner will able to see the map its made on the machine’s app, where they’ll be able to label each room of the floor, and allowing you to dictate cleaning for individual rooms or the whole space.
The automatic dustbin, called the Clean Base Automatic Dirt Disposal, is a small wall unit that the Roomba docks onto and empties up to 30 Roombas-worth of dust into before needing manual removal. This solves the issue of dust getting everywhere when emptying the robot, a common complaint from Roomba owners (the dock also charges the Roomba). It’s worth noting that automatic dust and dirt removal is not an industry first — plenty have featured a similar option for quite some time.
As is the case with robo-vacs of the past, these future robo-vacs are not a cheap buy. The i7+ complete setup is available for pre-order now for $950 and ships on September 12. Also on September 12, if you’re not interested in the dust-emptying dock, you’ll be able to purchase the robot separately for $699.
